The home laundering operation can provide an opportunity to treat fabrics with a variety of materials that will impart a desirable benefit or quality to the fabrics (“fabric care benefit”) during laundering. At each stage of the laundering operation, whether presoaking, washing, or rinsing, fabrics are to varying degrees found in contact with water which provides a preferred medium for delivery of fabric care compositions.
Delivery of fabric care agents during the laundering operation is not, however, accomplished without certain difficulties. Surfactants are generally employed during the presoaking and washing steps for the purpose of removing materials (soil) from the fabric. Simultaneous deposition onto fabrics of fabric care agents can, therefore prove troublesome. While some of these problems can be overcome by conditioning fabrics in the dryer (see, for example, Geiser; U.S. Pat. No. 3,442,692, issued May 6, 1969), it is well known that an efficient and uniform deposition of fabric care compositions in the dryer is difficult to achieve. Further, such deposition is primarily limited to the surface of the fabrics and is therefore, particularly inefficient at delivering actives to the non-surface regions of the fabrics.
The distribution of fabric care agents in a rinse bath solution is likewise not without difficulty. Because most rinse cycles use cold water, typically in the region of less than about 30° C., the dissolution and dispersion of solid, semi-solid and granular fabric care actives into a rinse solution is inhibited. To obtain an efficient distribution of fabric care actives through a rinse bath or other cold water laundry solution, most have resorted to the use of liquid compositions, particularly in combination with fabric softener actives. However, attempts to provide such fabric softening compositions with even moderate concentrations of non-softener actives have commonly encountered phase stability and viscosity problems. While stabilizers and other systems have been developed to overcome some of these issues, there remains a need for methods and compositions that will allow a consumer to distribute a wide array of fabric care actives in desired concentrations, preferably high concentrations, in the rinse bath or other cold water laundry solutions.
Thus, attempts have been made to improve the distribution of fabric care agents during the laundering process as well as to increase the types and quantities of fabric care actives that may be delivered. Some of these attempts are found in the prior art references listed subsequently herein. In spite of these developments, there is a continuing need for methods and compositions that are suitable for efficiently and effectively delivering a variety of fabric care agents to wash and rinse bath solutions and fabrics during the home laundering operation. It has been discovered with the present invention that such delivery may be accomplished with compositions, and articles made therefrom, that will rapidly dissolve and disperse in wash and/or rinse bath solutions across a broad range of temperatures and in the presence of a variety of other materials including detergents and/or fabric softener actives.
Further, because bulk-packaged wash and rinse-added compositions do not allow consumers the flexibility to prepare laundry solutions according to their own specifications or preferences, there is a need for methods and compositions that will allow the consumer the flexibility to prepare a customized laundry solution for each load of laundry based on the consumer's preferences and/or the fabric care needs of the fabrics to be laundered.
Further still, the present invention is based in part on the discovery that fabrics can receive excellent fabric care benefits from an article releasably containing a fabric care active or mixture of actives dispersed in the solution while the fabrics are being laundered. These enhanced fabric care benefits are achieved while offering significant additional convenience and flexibility.
Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide compositions, and articles made therefrom, which can be added to a washing machine, tub or other apparatus used to launder clothes, to treat fabrics in a superior manner concurrently with the home washing operation. The articles are constructed such that a unitized amount of a fabric care composition containing one or more fabric care actives is rapidly released after the article is dispensed in either a wash and/or rinse bath solution to insure effective distribution of the active in solution and/or deposition on the fabrics being laundered. It is a further object of the present invention to provide methods for treating and laundering fabrics through the use of such unitized articles during the home laundering process.
It is still another object of the present invention to provide a laundry kit containing multiple articles and optional instructions with which a consumer may customize a laundry solution to provide benefits in accordance with the consumer's personal preferences and the fabric care needs of their clothes. Therefore, it is also an object of the present invention to provide methods that will enable the consumer to prepare a customized laundry solution that will contain an effective amount of a fabric care active or mixture of actives that will impart a fabric care benefit chosen by the consumer.
It is yet another object of the present invention to provide methods for assisting a consumer in identifying and dispensing fabric care articles to be used by the consumer in preparing a customized laundry solution. Likewise, it is an object of the present invention to provide merchandising displays for use in instructing the consumer in the selection and use of fabric care articles, in dispensing such articles to the consumer, and for use by the consumer in assembling laundry kits according to their personal preferences and/or the fabric care needs of their fabrics.
It is still yet another object of the present invention to provide methods for conveying information concerning the fabric care needs of a fabric to a consumer to assist the consumer in caring for the fabric using the compositions, articles and methods described herein.
It is yet another object of the present invention to provide an effervescent article for providing improved delivery of an effective amount of a fabric care active to a laundry wash and/or rinse solution. Likewise, it is also an object of the present invention to provide a perfume containing article that will provide improved distribution and deposition of an effective amount of a selected perfume to a laundry wash and/or rinse solution.
These and other objects and advantages of the present invention will become obvious from the following disclosure.